The Buildings of San Juan

The production (colored) buildings

A player may have more than 1 of each type of production building. Each building may produce 1 good.

The violet buildings

There are 24 different violet buildings. 17 (3 each) have special functions players may use in the game and 4 (3 each of 3 monuments and 2 each of value 6) only give players victory points at game end. For each violet building:

each player may have only o n e of each building

the player may first use the special function of a building after the builder phase when he built it (owns it/has it in his play area), even in a later phase of the same round;

a player need not use the special function of a building.

Smithy

When the owner of a smithy builds a production building, he may pay one card less to build it. When a player builds a violet building, he gets no advantage from a smithy.

Gold mine

After a player selects the prospector role and takes the privilege (or not), each player who owns a gold mine, in clockwise order, may turn over the top-most 4 cards from the card supply, placing them face up on the table:

If all four cards have different building costs, the player adds any one of the cards to his hand and discards the other 3 cards face down on the discard stack;

if at least 2 of the cards have the same building cost, the player gets no card and discards all 4 cards face down on the discard stack.

Example: Michael has a gold mine and draws: library 5, prefecture 3, smithy 1, and tobacco storage 3: he must discard all 4 cards on the discard stack.

Alfonzo also has a gold mine and draws: quarry 4, smithy 1, tobacco storage 3, and library 5: he adds the quarry to his hand and discards the other 3 cards.

Archive

When any player selects the councillor role, the owner of an archive adds all cards he draws to his hand and then chooses which cards to discard from his entire hand. In other words, the player may discard drawn cards or cards he already had in his hand instead of just drawn cards.

Example: James is councillor and owns the prefecture and the archive: he draws 5 cards from the card supply, adds them all to his hand, and chooses 3 cards from his hand to discard on the discard stack.

Poor house

After the owner of a poor house has built a building, he may draw 1 card from the card supply, adding it to his hand, if he has only 0 or 1 card in his hand.

Note: If a player also owns a carpenter, he first draws this card. Then if he has less than 2 cards, he draws 1 card for the poor house. If a player does not build, he cannot draw a card for a poor house.

Black market

When the owner of a black market builds any building, he may use up to 2 of his goods (from his production buildings) instead of cards from his hand, placing them face down on the discard stack just like cards from his hand.

Example: Ken owns a black market and builds a library 5: he discards the goods card from his indigo plant, the goods card from his tobacco storage, and 3 cards from his hand to pay the 5 cost.

Trading post

During the trader phase, the owner of a trading post may sell 1 additional good from his production buildings.

Example: Todd owns a trading post and sells... as the trader, up to 2 goods, as non-trader, up to 3 goods, as trader with a library, up to 4 goods.

Well

During the producer phase, if the owner of a well produces at least 2 goods, he draws an additional card from the card supply, adding it to his hand. It matters not whether he is the producer or not.

Market stand

During the trader phase, if the owner of a market stand sells at least 2 goods, he draws an additional card from the card supply, adding it to his hand. It matters not whether he is the trader or not.

Crane

The owner of a crane may overbuild any of his existing buildings, placing the new building card completely covering the old card. By doing so, he reduces the cost of the new building by the cost of the old building.

Note: the upgraded building ceases to exist and, thus, immediately loses its special function. A player may build over any of his buildings except the crane.

If a player builds on a production building with a good, the good is lost (placed face down on the discard stack). This happens whether the new building is a production building or a violet building. If a player builds over a chapel, the cards under it remain and are still counted as victory points at the end of the game.

A player may later build an overbuilt violet building as a new building, since he would not break the rule of having 2 of the same violet building (he no longer has the overbuilt building).

A player may not overbuild a building with the same building.

Example: Ken overbuilds his chapel 3 with a palace 6 and pays 3 cards instead of 6 cards. Alfonzo overbuilds his coffee roaster 4 with a statue 3 and pays nothing; he does not take the 1 card difference from the card supply.

Chapel

At the beginning of each round, before the governor checks the players' card limits (of 7 or 12), the owner of a chapel may place any one of his hand cards face down under the chapel. At game end, the player scores 1 victory point for each card under his chapel (the text and victory points on these cards has no effect).

Note: The player must not share with his opponents which cards or how many cards he has placed under his chapel.

If a player overbuilds a chapel, at game end he still scores victory points for the cards under it. The new building scores its normal victory points, but not an extra "chapel" point as it is not under the chapel.

Example: at game end, Ken has 7 cards under his chapel; Ken scores 9 victory points for the chapel (2 for the building + 7 for the cards under it).

Tower

At the beginning of a round, when the governor checks players' hands for the card limit of 7, a player with a tower has a hand limit of 12 instead of 7. Of course, if the owner of a tower has more than 12 cards at the beginning of a round, he must discard all cards over 12 to the discard stack.

Aquaduct

In the producer phase, the owner of an aquaduct may produce 1 more good than otherwise possible.

Example: Michael owns an aquaduct and produces.. as producer, up to 2 goods, as non-producer, up to 3 goods, as producer with a library, up to 4 goods.

Carpenter

After the owner of a carpenter builds a violet building and pays the building cost, he may draw 1 card from the card supply and add it to his hand.

The carpenter has no special function when the player builds a production building.

Note: a player does not draw a card immediately after building the carpenter, but when he builds his next violet building.

Prefecture

In the councillor phase, the owner of a prefecture may keep 2 cards instead of 1.

Example: Alfonzo owns a prefecture... as councillor, he keeps 2 of 5 cards, as non-councillor, he keeps 2 of 2 cards, as councillor with a library, he keeps 2 of 8 cards.

If Alfonzo also owns an archive, he adds the cards he draws (2, 5, or 8) to his hand and then discards 0, 3, or 6 cards from his hand.

Market hall

When the owner of a market hall sells at least one good, he draws 1 card more than the price of the good sold from the card supply. If he sells more than 1 good, he only draws one extra card, not 1 extra card for each good sold.

Example: Ken sells 1 sugar for 1 and 1 coffee for 3: he draws a total of 5 cards from the card supply, adding them to his hand.

Quarry

When the owner of a quarry builds a violet building, he pays 1 card less to build the building.

The quarry has no special function when the player builds a production building.

Example: Nick is the builder and has a quarry in his play area: he builds a crane 2 for nothing.

Library

The owner of a library may double the privilege of the role he selects. The specific doubled privileges for the 5 roles are:

councillor: he keeps one card of 8 cards drawn;

builder: he pays 2 less cards to build a building;

producer: he produces up to 3 goods;

trader: he sells up to 3 goods;

prospector: he draws 2 cards from the card supply.

Example: Ken is the councillor and owns a library, an archive, and a prefecture. He draws 8 cards, adding them to his hand, and discards 6 cards from his hand face down to the discard stack.

Alfonzo is the builder and owns a library and a quarry. He pays 3 fewer cards to build a violet building.

Note: in a 2 player game, the owner of a library may only use it once per round! Thus, when the governor uses his library on his first turn in the round, he may not use it on his second turn in the round! Of course, if he does not use the library on his first turn in the round, he may use it on his second turn. The following seven violet buildings offer their owners no special functions during the game, but may give their owners victory points (VP) at the end of the game:

Triumphal arch

At game end, the owner of a triumphal arch scores victory points for the monuments in his play area: for 1 monument he scores 4 VP, for 2 monuments he scores 6 VP, and for 3 monuments he scores 8 VP.

Example: at game end, Michael owns triumphal arch, statue, and hero: he scores 6 VP for the triumphal arch.

Note: if the owner of one or more monuments also has a city hall and a triumphal arch, he scores the victory points for city hall and triumphal arch.

Palace

At game end, the owner of a palace scores 1 victory point for every four other victory points he scores. To determine these additional victory points, he tallies all his other victory points (except those for the palace) and divides the total by 4 (rounding down) and scores the result as additional victory points for the palace.

Example: at game end, Alfonzo owns a palace. He scores a total of 34 victory points (excluding the palace). He then scores 8 additional victory points for the palace, for a total of 42 victory points.

Ultra BoardGames

This site is dedicated to promoting exciting board games. Through extensive research, we bring everything you need to know about board games.
Our mission is to produce engaging articles like reviews, tips and tricks, game rules, strategies, etc. Please enjoy.